Written Reply by Minister for Transport S Iswaran to Parliamentary Question on Plans for Global or Regional Immunity Passport to Ensure Authenticity of COVID-19 Vaccinations for Air Travel and Border Control

Mr Shawn Huang Wei Zhong asked the Minister for Transport whether there are any updates to plans for a global or regional immunity passport to ensure the authenticity of COVID-19 vaccinations for air travel and border control.

Reply by Minister for Transport S Iswaran:

1.     As vaccination gets underway in many countries, multilateral forums such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation and regional forums including ASEAN and APEC are exploring the development of global or regional mechanisms for the recognition of vaccination certificates. Singapore participates actively in these discussions, sharing our approach and contributing our expertise.

2.     These discussions will likely take some time, as countries and regions are at different stages of progress in vaccinating their respective populations. Nonetheless, these multilateral and regional discussions are useful in laying the groundwork for us to reopen travel for vaccinated individuals between Singapore and these countries when we are ready to do so.

3.     Concurrently, Singapore is in bilateral discussions with several countries on establishing mechanisms for the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates, including with Australia, Malaysia and Republic of Korea. We have set up inter-agency bilateral working groups with these countries and are exchanging information on how we may mutually verify the authenticity of each other’s certificates. This includes the exchange of public keys for the verification of digital certificates, and the exchange of specimen copies for the verification of physical ones.